BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Wednesday directed the Works Department to complete construction of Trisulia bridge over Kathajodi river within next two months and Gupupriya Setu in Maoist-affected Malkangiri district by September 2017.
At a high-level meeting in the Secretariat here, Chief Secretary AP Padhi reviewed the performance of the Works Department.
The 2.88-km Trisulia bridge connecting the Twin City of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar has missed several deadlines. The project, which was supposed to be completed by September, 2016 has been rescheduled for March.
Works Secretary NK Pradhan said, “There has been considerable progress in the construction of the 910-metre bridge over Gurupriya river which will connect Chitrakonda with Paper Metla. The project will be completed before September.”
Setting timeline for different projects, Padhi asked the department to complete expansion of Sambalpur-Rourkela road by March and buildings of four medical colleges at Balangir, Balasore, Koraput and Baripada by June this year. Admission to the new medical colleges is expected to start from the 2017-18 academic session. Another medical college is also coming up at Puri and each of the medical college will have 100 seats.
The department has utilised more than 72 per cent of the State Plan amounting Rs 291.18 crore by December, 2016 and the total plan fund utilisation by the end of the current financial year will be around Rs 3,757 crore, the Works Secretary said.
The department had planned to improve 5,587 km length of road, construct 75 bridges and 10 railway overbridges/flyovers with financial outlay of Rs 10,277.80 crore during the 12th Plan period. The plan expenditure of the department was Rs 908 crore in 2011-12, Rs 1426 crore during 2013-14, Rs 2,333 crore in 2014-15 and about Rs 3000 crore in 2015-16.
The plan outlay of the department for the current fiscal was Rs 29921.18 crore and another Rs 419.65 crore was given in the supplementary budget.
The department has acquired more than 76 percent of land required for the ambitious Biju Expressway by December last year through direct purchase from land owners.